Gregory Turner got an e-mail on Monday from Experian's ProtectMyID.com, which is the free creditor monitoring service provided by the state of South Carolina.

The state is offering one year of protection due to a hacking incident in the Department of Revenue.

According to the email, Turner's credit report changed.

"It gave me some numbers to call. First thing I did was verify that this was a legitimate email," Turner told News4's Mike McCormick.

Turner is a retired law enforcement officer, but the security breach is making him even more cautious.

"Always be on the lookout. Every situation could potentially be volatile. You don't know what's around any corner even if it's cyberspace," said Turner.

Once he verified that the email was legitimate, he called the company and learned that someone opened an account in his name at a bank in Delaware.

"My personal feeling is it's going to come from the (Department of Revenue) stuff because they said it goes all the way back to the '90s in the tax files and all. Credit problems are not something I've ever had to deal with," Turner said.

An investigation is under way. It'll be several days before he gets any more information about what happened.

"Of course it makes you antsy, but at least you know that your account's flagged," Turner said.

Whether or not his case is related to the hacking incident, Turner is seeing a bright side to the whole ordeal. The security breach got him identity theft protection he's never had before.

"It gives you a feeling that there's something out there you can do before it's too late. They can ruin you before you knew what happened," said Turner.

Turner is looking into continuing the identity theft protection once the one-year subscription provided by the state runs out.

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